Sweetening Tea

ceylon ginger flavored tea

To sweeten or not to sweeten is a debate among tea lovers, while most of us love our teas sweeten there are many who prefer to drink it as it is. Whether its your herbal tea, or your green tea, or the regular black tea, people who love to sweeten their tea will always stick to it.

There are so many ways you can sweeten your cup of Ceylon Tea. The obvious choice when it comes to sweetening your tea is sugar. Sugar too has many varieties, but the most commonly used are white sugar and brown sugar. You can experiment and come up with so many methods so here are some ideas to give you a head start.

Sugar White/Brown
As we said before sugar is the most common method when it comes to sweetening you tea. Different types of sugar has various flavors, for instance brown sugar has a deep, rich flavor to it than white sugar. White sugar is refined and processed from sugar cane to remove the molasses (by-product of refining sugarcane). Where as brown sugar is not as refined as white sugar and its molasses are only half way removed. Brown sugar gives your tea a wonderful flavor. Sugar also comes in many forms, such as sugar syrups, and reduced calorie sugar cubes. Any of these would go perfectly with your tea.

Honey
Of course honey isn’t something new that sweetens your tea, its the well know substitute to sugar, and is more healthier than sugar. It adds a certain flavor to your tea and a richness. If you find the right type of honey, you wouldn’t ever think of sweetening your
tea with sugar again. A bonus point, adding honey to your green tea might increase its benefits, honey adds to the antioxidants already present in your green tea.

Jaggery( Hakuru)
Us Sri Lankans are all about jaggery. Every Sri Lankan knows that jaggery is best consumed with your cup of Ceylon black tea. There are variety of ways to make Jaggery.For those of you who doesn’t know the taste, it’s very sweet, and a tiny piece consumed
with your tea gives you so much flavor. Jaggery is a must have in every house hold around Sri Lanka.

Maple Syrup
Most people wouldn’t think of maple syrup as an option for sweetening your tea. But it is a wonderful way to add a different flavor to your cup of tea. Maple syrup is as sweet as sugar, but it has a lot more minerals and is healthier than honey as it has lesser
calories.

Fruits
I know what most of you might think, but it’s one of the natural ways to add flavor to your tea. The most commonly used is lemon, which has a sort of sweetness and a tartness to it, when added to your tea it enhances the flavor of your tea. These are some of the well know ways to sweeten your tea. But of course you can drink your tea without sweetening as well, some people prefer it to sweetening. If you want to experiment with taste and a be a little adventurous might I suggest trying these different options and giving your cup of Ceylon Tea a different and a delicious flavor.